Tips For Buying Antiques

Do you love antiques? How do you know if what you’re buying is really antique, or just old? If you’re lucky, you have inherited a wonderful antique, one that you love, and you know it really is antique, because it has been passed down generation after generation in your family. But if you have a passion for antiques and will be buying your own antiques, here are my best Tips For Buying Antiques.

The images are some I’ve taken myself while sourcing French antiques, and some from antiques in our FrenchGardenHouse shop.

If you’re shopping for antiques, it can be pretty confusing, especially if you haven’t been around antiques, or are just starting out with your passion for the old, wonderful pieces. It’s sometimes difficult to tell if a piece is really a legitimate antique, or just simply old, or a copy made to look antique. {I have come across a few that were so very good…that it took me a while to figure out why it just didn’t feel right to me!}

There are so many dealers out there wanting to sell you their next fabulous antique, and you need to know if you can really trust what they tell you, right? How do you know if they know what they are talking about? What should you buy? What shouldn’t you buy? There are a ton of questions, I hope that this will help you get closer to some of the answers.

As always, the more you have seen, touched and been around antiques, the easier it will be for you to figure out if something is, or isn’t antique. Online Price Guides and Auction Catalogs can be helpful too, although the prices listed can’t take into account variables like condition, who sells a piece, and how popular the particular piece is in your part of the country. All of those will have a big influence on price.

First, by law, an antique is at least 100 years old. I know that these days, most people in the business don’t hold strictly to that, I do. Vintage generally means anything and everything else that was not made this year. Although originally, the label of vintage was meant to be 50 years old. A collectible is just about anything that people collect {dolls, porcelain statues, silver teaspoons, cigar labels~ you get the idea.} Then there are vintage collectibles, which technically should be at least 50 years old, but again, these days most people don’t stick to that rule anymore.

Just like with anything else, the first thing I would suggest you do is some homework. I can’t recommend this enough, because once you have seen enough real antique pieces, you will know one when you see one. Spend time in antique shops, antique malls, auctions and museums. Talk with a few reputable dealers and collectors if you can find them, read up on some of the things that make your heart beat faster in magazines, books and online.

I don’t really suggest you use ebay as a research place, unless you are certain that the dealer whose description you are reading actually knows what they are writing about. There are plenty of excellent, very knowledgeable dealers on ebay. But there are also plenty of people who sell things, and really don’t know if it’s real, fake or exactly what it is.

Once you have learned a few things, it’s a great idea to buy from a reputable dealer {meaning they have a good reputation} Most dealers I know will be happy to spend their time telling you about the items you are interested in. They will be able to tell you something about the item, the history, age, marks on the piece, how rare it is, and how to take care of it.

I know that on tv antique shows, a great deal is made of ‘provenance’ – I will just say here and now that most antiques do not come with that. If you are investing a huge amount of money in an antique, it may have provenance. Provenance means it has a written record of who owned the piece, perhaps who made it. It is unlikely for me to find pieces with provenance in any kind of reasonable price range, unless I find a collection of pieces at an estate from a very record keeping family who have paper proving when their family member bought the piece or had it commissioned. Finding out who the maker is is much simpler, thank goodness, thanks to hallmarks and back stamps.

Despite my love for flea markets, I do have to let you know that this is where it’s a “buyer beware” situation. Many, many dealers at fleamarkets are honest, knowledgeable and extremely hard working dealers. Some, not so much. They buy, they sell, they stretch the truth a little.

I once had a dealer try to convince me a piece of porcelain he wanted me to buy was antique Limoges. I said it wasn’t, and proved it by turning the piece over and pointing to the Made in China sticker! Does this mean you shouldn’t buy things at flea markets? Absolutely NOT! It all depends on why you want to buy. If you are buying things you love, you just like the way it looks then flea markets are the best. But if you are buying as an investment, please do your homework, and know what you are buying.

Antiques are fabulous. I love them! I can’t imagine living without at least one piece of something with the history, the quality and the stories attached to it that only something 100 years old has. As I’ve said before in interviews, all things old tell a story, and that is what I love about them. It is thrilling to wonder who owned this painting, or that tiara. These pieces were cherished by generations before us, I love to listen to the quiet stories they whisper.

I hope you continue to be curious about antiques, and to choose them to feather your nest! Here at FrenchGardenHouse we have been in the antique business for over 20 years, and we value our reputation. I do my utmost to be 100% transparent about the antiques we sell, when they have age, wear and/or signs of their long life, I will share that in descriptions and photographs.

Antiques are beautiful things that connect us to generations before us, the artists, the designers, the makers, the home makers and their families. If I can impress on you one thing about antiques it’s this:

ANTIQUES NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE. ANTIQUES ARE WELL MADE. ANTIQUES WILL BRING YOU JOY.

We have a new collection of exceptional antiques that we curate from the best sources in France, England, and sometimes here at home in the states. I hope you will take a peek to see if there is something that will capture your heart!